H-Net
and the European Social Science History Conferenceby
Robert Cherny, President-Elect of H-Net

The
European Social Science History conference met in the Hague, the
Netherlands, on February 27 - March 2. H-Net was well represented.
On Friday, March 1, Gus Seligmann (H-Net president), Bob Cherny
(H-Net president-elect), Melanie Shell Weiss (H-Net Council member
and assistant director), and Antoinette Fauve-Chamoux (H-Net Council
member and chair of the International Committee) co-hosted a luncheon
for those H-Net editors who were in attendance. At the business
meeting, also on March 1, Gus made a presentation on behalf of H-Net,
offering to be of whatever assistance might be useful during the
planning for the next ESSH meeting, which will be held in Berlin
in 2004. Gus represented H-Net at the meeting of the technology
network, which agreed to include H-Net in its planning for the next
ESSH conference.

Other
H-Net participants included Leonid Borodkin, editor of H-AHC (Association
for History and Computing), who serves on the ESSH advisory board
and will help to plan the next two conferences, and Antoinette Fauve-Chamoux,
who served as one of the organizers for the family and demography
network and as a chair and discussant. Seth Wigderson, a former
member of the H-Net Council, presented a paper, as did Melanie Shell
Weiss; other H-Net editors and advisory board members were also
present and some presented papers or served as discussants.

On
the final day of the conference, March 2, Gus, Bob, Melanie, and
Antoinette offered a roundtable discussion on the topic, "Building
Global Networks of Scholars: The Benefits and Challenges of Internationalizing
H-Net." The session was well attended, and there was a lively
and useful discussion about ways to increase H-Net participation
by scholars outside the US.

Fauve-Chamoux
began with an overview of the work of the International Committee.
Cherny followed with some comments on the current extent of internationalization
of H-Net and some observations on the challenges that H-Net will
face in accomplishing further internationalization. Shell Weiss
spoke on H-Net's efforts to bridge the digital divide, focusing
on H-Net's African networks, other work in Africa, and H-Net's new
publication model. Seligmann summarized some of H-Net's efforts
at making online archives available to scholars at universities
that are not able to afford access to existing databases.

About
the AuthorRobert
Cherny, President-Elect of H-Net, is at San Francisco State
University and is also List Editor for H-California, Advisory Board
Member for H-Labor, List Editor for H-SHGAPE, Advisory Board Member
for H-West.